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Astarion yawned at the console, looking out into the dark abyss of space with a frown. He’d been working for Tyrant Enterprises for a while now, and while he loved his job, it got him away from Cazador after all, it was lonely. One hundred thousand credits for two years of his life. It was a good deal, and when he returned planet side, he would be able to skip town, and move wherever he wanted, start a business, anything he desired with that kind of money. It helped that two years out of eternity was nothing to him.
Still, being the sole pilot aboard the cargo ship with somewhere close to a thousand sleeping humans on their way to colonize a new planet? That was about as boring as watching paint dry. The short trances, not needing to consume any of the carefully packed rations for once the survivors arrived, and blood being fairly easy to transport in such a large ship – being a vampire for once had its perks. Still, he sighed for the umpteenth time in the last hour as he tried tuning the radio for any of the interstellar radio stations – only to come up with static. That meant likely that the holo’s were offline from connection as well. He’d already gone through his library of movies– even the horrible straight to holo movies like Owlbears From The Deep.
Astarion might go crazy if he didn’t find some sort of distraction for his brain.
The beeping of an alarm brought the vampire out of his daze.
“Well then, at least it’s the fun part of the day. Who might the lucky bastards be this time?” A few motions of his fingers against the floating datapad brought up a grouping of people. Group Delta… There were quite a number of wealthy scholars in this group it seemed, even a few names he recognized. The vampire pursed his lips as he scrolled through each photo, reading just a little about them.
“God… why are you all so boring ?” He asked, beginning to swipe for swiping sake. Nothing of interest, and he sighed. “Might as well get started, don’t want your precious wealthy muscles atrophying during your fun little holiday, now do we?”
The ship was large, large enough to house a thousand humans at least, and the vampire needed to take an elevator up to the Delta deck. The first few humans he was meant to massage went by easily enough. A few young people, barely old enough to have legally signed up. A family with children…. An elderly couple. He was most of the way through the Delta group when he came across a pod that was slightly open.
That… was not supposed to happen. With mild panic, he threw open the lid to see not the pale, frozen skin of a man in cryosleep, but the shivering form of a man, struggling his way out of the coma of deep sleep, if the flickering behind his eyelids was anything to go by. When was the last time that Astarion had checked on Delta crew? He quickly consulted his holocuff, pulling up the video from his last check in. Two days ago – he remembered now. He’d been woken in the middle of a nightmare during his trance by the alarm. The video feed showed him closing the pod, but a few moments after he left, it slowly slid open. Looking down at the man now, he could see what had happened. Astarion hadn’t checked thoroughly enough and the cloth of his sleeve had kept the pod from latching fully.
No… no no no. He was so fucked. He needed this job… it was the only way to stay off world long enough for Cazador to move on to the next poor unsuspecting sod, and Astarion to have the money to move to another system, far- far away from his Master.
Clawed fingers flew over the keyboard of his holocuff, trying to find anything in the manual on how best to handle this situation. There was nothing on how to put someone back into cryosleep, but there was information on how best to handle a patient waking up early due to a malfunctioning pod.
Step 1: Remove the patient from the chamber and take them to the crew’s quarters. Lay them out in a bed on their side so that the expulsion will not suffocate them.
Expulsion? Gods…. Truly what group had he become a part of? Perhaps now was not quite the time to be asking that question. Astarion slipped an arm beneath the brunette’s legs and shoulders, making note of the pod number so he would at least be able to know who this man was once he had done all he could to prepare for him waking. A simple command had the instructions being read out to him as he transported the man to the crew’s quarters.
Step 2: Keep the patient warm with blankets and body heat. Hypothermia is a concern with waking from cryosleep prematurely. Skin to skin contact is best, as it heats the body at a manageable rate without possibly sending the patient into shock.
Well fuck. Astarion wasn’t exactly the warmest of people on the best of days, but he could feed a little, from the blood bags they provided. That should at least raise his temperature some, though anything warmer than freezing might be sufficient. Astarion laid the man down in the vampire’s bed, pulling back the covers, and beginning to pull off the man’s cryo suit. There was a zipper down the middle of the chest, and it was easy enough to remove from each of his limbs. The shivers started up on the brunet again, and Astarion tucked the blankets around the reviving patient while he listened to the rest of the instructions, and went to retrieve himself what Tyrant had lovingly called ‘nutrition packs’ rather than blood bags.
Step 3: Contact your Tyrant Enterprises supervisor as soon as possible. They will be able to direct you to the nearest facility in which to dock in order to return the patient to cryosleep.
That step was going to be a little more difficult. He consulted the map, and as he feared, he was in a blackout area, and would be for the next few days. He’d just…. Have to do his best. That’s all he really could do.
With his blood bag in tow, he pierced it with a small metal straw, and started drinking it down quickly as he returned to his quarters, looking through the man’s dossier while he went.
Name: Gale Dekarios
Age: 37
Occupation: Professor and Expert on Magical Maladies
Blood Type: O-
Physical Status: Healthy mostly, minor obesity.
Astarion snorted as he finished the last of his blood, returning to his room. This Gale Dekarios looked like he hadn’t struggled a day in his life, rich professor with a family probably, wealthy enough to go on this expedition…. Astarion hated him a little in that moment. He stopped in the doorway, looking at the brunet, touched with grays at the temples and shivering, looking frankly a little pathetic beneath the blankets Astarion had piled on him while he was gone. All that pampered living for what? For a grunt like Astarion to come along and save him.
The vampire sighed and stripped down to his own boxers, and crawled in under the blankets with the shivering professor. Any passenger that didn’t make it was a cool 10,000 credits taken from his final payout – and he had painstakingly budgeted every single one in order to make his plan of escape work.
The man – Gale, his mind supplied for him, immediately sought out the warmth of another in his fugue state, and Astarion was glad that he was used to the cold, for the man’s hands and feet were like ice against him. Understandable, given the fact that he’d been frozen just a few hours ago still. Astarion reached out, pulling the man towards him, and tucking the brunet’s head underneath his chin.
“M-Mystra?” The soft voice of the man croaked against his chest in half breath. He was still shivering, and at first the word was hard to make out.
“No, I’m afraid I’m not them,” Astarion said, not recognizing the name at all. “Sorry to disappoint.” He rubbed a hand over the man’s back, trying to help him warm, and the man went stiff in his arms.
“D-don’t touch m-my spine.” Gale said through chattering teeth, “D-did I wake early?”
Astarion lifted his hands from Gale’s back and moved his touch to the man’s arm instead. “I’m afraid so, your pod didn’t close properly, and you’ve woken about halfway through our trip. Unfortunately, we’re in a dead zone for the next few days.” Gale gave another full body shiver that forced his teeth to chatter.
“Th-They’ll want to put me back in once you can contact them.” Gale stated, wrapping his own arms around himself now, and leaning into Astarion’s embrace, “P-Please… don’t let them.”
The request had Astarion’s brows raising. “Oh? Why ever not? You want to remain awake with boredom for the next six months?”
Another wave of chills plagued the human and he reached out, gripping Astarion with a surprising amount of strength. “Th-they took me against my will.” He said, “We’re not colonizing a new planet… I-I was part of the research team…. They’re bringing in people to experiment on. Vampires… to test diseases. I told them it was unethical… I told them it was wrong…” Gale curled in tighter against Astarion’s chest, almost desperate for his warmth.
“Hey… hey…” Astarion smoothed a hand over Gale’s hair and hummed softly beneath his breath, “Shhhh it’s alright. Nothing to be afraid of darling… nothing at all.”
He tucked the human into his side, all the while thinking about that terrifying fourth rule that had him anxious. This man was supposedly an expert on magical maladies… and mentioning vampires? Quite a bit of this was worrying. Still – the rule plagued his mind, repeating as if the corporation itself was reaching out to remind him of his duties.
Step 4: Disregard anything that the patient might say upon waking from cryosleep. There are simulated dreams given while they are under, and sometimes this might result in nightmares. Any comments should not be given a second thought as anything more than a vivid nightmare.
“It was just a nightmare Gale.” he said softly, petting his hair and holding him against his chest, “Just a nightmare and nothing more…”
Still, Astarion couldn’t help wondering…
What if it wasn’t just a nightmare?